Whorl Inside a Loop

In this Second Stage production, a well-regarded actress teaches six inmates how to tell their stories at a men’s maximum security prison. More…

Sharing intimate and sometimes hilarious details of their former lives, this unlikely group forms a bond - even as the actress’ life outside spins out of control. And when what happens in prison doesn't stay there, no one is sure who to trust. Six men play two dozen characters in a constant shifting of scenes, ages, genders and races.

"Heartfelt and hopeful, tragic, hilarious, and timely, this show, boasting a vigorous script, tremendous performances, and simple but perfect theatricality, is a joy that should not be missed...Michael Mayer and Mr. Scanlan’s inspired, nurturing direction makes beats pop and performances sparkle...More than just an outstanding show, 'Whorl Inside a Loop' is a chance for six wonderful black performers to show what they can do, and it’s a chance for us to see them do it."
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"A funny and moving new play...Their hard upbringings, the unhappy circumstances that led them into crime, the sometimes scandalously long sentences they received: These histories make for riveting, disturbing theater, and as recounted by the superb cast, they open windows into the lives of men whose stories mostly go untold, except in investigative journalism...Vivid writing and superlative performances effectively humanize each of the prisoners."
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"'Whorl' is told through heaps of wit and thrillingly inventive staging. More important, it's a powerful reminder of the existence and basic humanity of our incarcerated fellow Americans whom many of us would rather forget...Everything here is tight, specific, and believable...'Whorl Inside a Loop' will be very hard for many of us to forget."
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"'Whorl Inside a Loop' has a searching, puzzling quality that is very rare in contemporary plays, whose themes are typically sharpened to fine pencil-points. This one spreads out as it goes, asking larger and larger questions...'Whorl Inside a Loop' convincingly demonstrates that theater can itself be a form of rehabilitation."
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"It's refreshing when a writer toys with multiple truths, using theater to reveal the ways real-world stories are constructed — as in the smart, complex 'Whorl Inside a Loop...' Scott and Scanlan honor the stories they encountered in prison, while showing us the shortcomings of our own readiness to believe."
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"'Whorl Inside a Loop' is both dramatically rewarding and very topical. With prison reform in the spotlight these days, the play offers much needed insight. However, more than anything else it is also highly entertaining...Amid its many virtues, 'Whorl Inside a Loop' still needs some work, particularly in the final scenes which are unnecessarily ambiguous. That aside, the play is, pardon the pun, truly captivating."
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"'Theatricalizing the personal narrative' is written on the chalkboard. It's something Sherie Rene Scott and Dick Scanlan have done successfully...Arts programs are usually at the bottom of the budget priority list for most institutions, prisons included. With 'Whorl Inside a Loop,' Scott and Scanlan make the case for their efficacy as a rehabilitation tool...Co-directors Scanlan and Michael Mayer bring out the best in their talented actors."
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"As fine and funny as 'Whorl Inside a Loop' often is, the best thing about it is its cast — there hasn’t been such a dynamite ensemble of African-American actors since 'The Wire...' Using only minimal props, the actors switch seamlessly from one role to another as co-directors Scanlan and Michael Mayer keep this intermissionless show moving...In the dark, nobody will see you cry."
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"The Volunteer has a secret of her own, one that makes us wonder whether she really is Sherie Rene Scott and, more important, whether we like her, whoever she is, as much as we thought we did. But that’s one more reason to have been entranced by this twisty work, performed with surprisingly deep eloquent power."
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"Sherie Rene Scott and collaborator Dick Scanlan use their experiences volunteering at an upstate prison for the penetrating 'Whorl Inside a Loop,' about a white actor helping six incarcerated black men tell their stories...It’s the inmates’ stories that have the most resonance...As race and law enforcement continue to make headlines, 'Whorl' is a timely reminder of the precarious nature of justice."
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"Humanity oozes forth from 'Whorl Inside a Loop...' The evening benefits from dynamic performances and from smooth staging by Scanlan and Michael Mayer...The actors playing the prisoners also perform characters from the Volunteer’s privileged Manhattan life, and while initially there is delight from these rich-people impersonations, their over-broadness threatens to distract us from the play’s heartbreaking realism."
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"The prison scenes are perfectly tense and raw, but when the action leaves the facility, the volunteer's world is played with broad, sometimes cartoonish strokes, decreasing their impact...Despite the snags, when 'Whorl Inside a Loop' is working, the play delivers some powerful theatre. Fortunately, it works quite a lot."
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"Intriguing but rough-edged new play...With so much to ponder and so little point, we need a cleaner, sharper journey to where we're going. The prisoners have essentially an infinity to ponder the nuances and intricacies of what they're doing. We have much less time to waste, even in pursuit of 'Whorl Inside a Loop's' noble, fascinating idea."
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"If you're looking for a sheer explosion of talent, you can't do much better than 'Whorl Inside a Loop,' in which half a dozen black actors bring to life a roomful of convicts with lively, funny, harrowing, and thoroughly riveting stories to tell...Well-intentioned, filled with talent, 'Whorl Inside a Loop' is something of a mess. In any number of passages it captivates, but when the focus shifts away from the men in prison, you may have to simply grin and bear it."
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"The actors, playing both men and women, and creating the sound effects themselves, display their versatility through distinctive alterations in body language and speech; despite the laughs they draw, however, these bits—especially the racial and gender-crossing ones—tend to be distractingly exaggerated...It’s a stretch to accept the premise...An interesting, if flawed, play."
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"There is much that is admirable and even heart-warming about the play. Yet, the creative team more or less manages to turn the inmates into supporting players in what should be their story...What’s good about 'Whorl Inside a Loop,' especially the acting, would make its self-indulgent aspects matter less, if the show weren’t entering a theatrical landscape already dotted with well-done prison dramas, most notable among them plays created and performed by ex-inmates."
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"'Whorl Inside a Loop' had the potential to be an important play. But in its current state at Off-Broadway's Second Stage, it is a mess -- though a very interesting mess, full of some striking moments, a smart overall concept and bitter commentary on race and gender...It needs -- and merits -- further development."
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"It’s captivating and packs a punch. And it’s cartoonish and loses its grip...These scenes outside the prison are played in such broad strokes that the mood is shattered. In the end, the play underlines that a personal narrative is just that — personal. That matters when it comes to who gets to tell it, and how. The point is valid — and criminally obvious."
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"One wishes that the authors had stuck to the prisoners’ narratives, which are quite powerful and well-performed. The other parts of the play are muddled and dilute the impact. A twist at the end that raises the question of who is actually telling whose story didn’t quite work for me."
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"The play has moments that are moving, humorous, and gripping. But these qualities exist on separate planes. They’re never synthesized, and they’re supplemented by passages that annoy rather than enlighten or entertain...The title 'Whorl inside a Loop' refers to an alleged characteristic of The Volunteer’s fingerprints, indicating she’s loyal, loving, manipulative, amoral, narcissistic, trustworthy, capable of acts of extreme kindness, and sociopathic with criminal tendencies. Like the play, ...
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"The real-life prisoners involved deserve better treatment than this self-indulgent, self-consciously artificial exercise...Unfortunately, and more than a little ironically, the prisoners get short shrift in this piece, which muddles its serious themes in self-conscious, artificial theatricality...With both the writing and acting often lurching into caricature, the play unfortunately trivializes its important subject matter...it too often seems to be spinning its own wheels."
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"On display here are the kind of gross caricatures that cause part of the audience to guffaw and break into applause, while others simply recoil in silence at the spectacle in front of them. Maybe that’s the desired effect. It’s crass, however, to beg for compassion for some characters and turn others into objects of such ridicule. The actors are at their best when they perform the prisoners’ monologues, which are written with sensitivity by men who are or have been incarcerated. Kudos to tho...
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